News
Local

Sharing father's rich history with toy drive

Jason Miller/The Intelligencer
Helen Kelly holds a Dec. 13 1958 edition of The Ontario Intelligencer which featured a full page spread with articles and photos detailing the toy repair operation founded by her father in Belleville.

Eric Cooper’s generosity and knack for repairing broken toys in the late 1940s spawned the roots of the Belleville Fire Fighters Toy Drive, which delivered gifts boxes to 1,400 children in 2016.

“It’s a legacy and I’m very proud that my father cared enough to take the time,” said Helen Kelly, about her late father, who had moved to Canada from Britain in 1904. “He loved building things. It’s just fate that it turned out to be toys. I’m very proud of that fact.”

Kelly had to be prodded to unlock her father’s story, as being in the spotlight was never her thing. Like her father, she’s more comfortable with being the cog in the engine nobody sees.

She sighs, before reluctantly complying, knowing it could help drum up support for the Toy Drive.

“I hope it stimulates toy contributions,” Kelly said, adding that close to 700 families benefit each year. “It could urge people to think about it and contribute.”

Surrounded by a collection of photos and newspaper articles, the remnants of her father’s illustrious story, Kelly recalls her pa’s penchant for giving back to the community and how his repair shop soon outgrew the basement of the Cooper’s modest Bridge Street East home.

“I was aware of dad doing all these repairs in the basement and mother doing the doll clothing,” Kelly said. “They made things and repaired things. And it grew rapidly.”

Once the word got out, that he fixed and made wooden toys in his basement for needy children at Christmas, Cooper received a flood of items including toy trucks, bicycles, doll carriages, toboggans and a vast array of other toys.

Her brother, Mike Cooper and fellow Kiwanians, Don Finkle and Agnor Leland, were willing helpers, who worked alongside her father.

“They would come over along with other Kiwanis friends,” Kelly said.

Within two or so years, his work expanded from the basement to the Kiwanis Club. By 1954, the operation was in full swing. In 1958, the club fixed and distributed around 5,000 toys.

Kelly reaches for a circa 1950s page from The Ontario Intelligencer and 1994 editions of The Belleville Intelligencer, resting on the coffee table inside her neatly kept Hastings Drive bungalow.

The pages peel back the many layers who her dad, a former RCMP and military policeman at RCAF Trenton, used his spare time to bring joy to local children. He later went into real estate.

Her father’s work received widespread recognition, so much so he garnered the attention of the then Ontario Intelligencer, which published an elaborate full-page spread, with photographs, in its Dec. 13, 1958 edition. Her father’s story, as told by her, was also featured in the Intelligencer 1994 Portraits from the past.

An excerpt from The Ontario Intelligencer showed how firefighters assisted with deliveries and purchasing toys.

“Except for those men who must remain on duty, every man on the local fire department will be out in this community providing happiness to many children,” the 1958 article states. “Beside those articles which have come from the toy shop down at the Kiwanis Centre, there are many which the firefighters have purchased themselves for the kiddies. Many things are purchased from funds obtained through the Monday night bingo, which the firemen hold in the Elks Hall.”

Kelly’s track record for giving isn’t shabby either. She’s involved with Amnesty International and Quinte Grannies for Africa, to name a few.

“I want to do it for dad because he did a lot,” she said.

She’s also hoping it spur those in her own family to build on the legacy created by her father’s generosity.

“Maybe one of my granddaughters or somebody will see that and say let’s do it again,” Kelly said.

*

Toy Drive chairperson, Ryan Turcotte, said the 2017 campaign is short toys for girls and boys ages seven to nine.

“Demand is definitely up this year,” he said, while sorting items at the Pinnacle Street warehouse. “Our numbers this year are definitely up, but I’m not sure where it’s going to land.”

People can still donate right up until Christmas Day, at either fire hall, Bay View Mall and Quinte Mall.

“People interested in knitting for us, we have wool to provide to anyone who wants to knit toques and mitts for kids,” Turcotte said. “Any parent who brings a kid to drop a gift at the fire hall can get a free tour of the fire trucks.”